“Hey Liz, what’s going on... What?... Really... No that can’t be... I just saw to him... Ok, I’ll be there... Tuesday?... I’ll tell my boss... ok bye.” By the time Kate had hung up the phone she had mix feelings of sadness, lonliness, pain, and regret. Why hadn’t she spent more time with him? Why hadn’t she told him she loved him more? Why did she have to yell at him before she left? She thanked the Lord that it was Sunday and that she didn’t have work. All she had to do was tell Gibbs tomarrow morning that she wouldn’t be at work on Tuesday, maybe just call him and not go into work tomorrow either. Just as she was about to call Gibbs, there was a knock on the door. She stood up slowly, complaining to herself that she didn’t want to see anyone today. She opened the door and answered with a somewhat rude, “What do you want?”. Unfortunatly for her, the last person on Earth that she wanted to see at the moment was on the other side.

“Hiya Kate!” Tony replied happily, a giant smile plastered on his face.

“Tony, it’s Sunday, why the hell are you at my apartment?” Kate asked, again somewhat rudly.

“Aw, Kate, now is that really anyway to act?” Tony asked, and when he recieved no reply from Kate he continued. “We have a case, dead Marine. We need to meet Gibbs at the helicopter field.”

“Why.” Kate whined, “It’s Sunday, we’re not supposed to be working.”

“C’mon Kate, I’ll give you a ride.” Tony offered, his attitude had changed when he saw how his partner was acting. Kate simply nodded and turned to go and change and grab her gear. After she had finished, Tony led her out to his car, and they both got in. They drove the hour drive to the helicopter field in silence. Kate was looking out the window, but Tony could still see that she was on the verge of tears. When they reached the field, Tony parked, but didn’t unlock the car.

“Kate...” he started to ask, but Kate cut him off.

“Tony, if your going to ask if I’m okay, my answer is that I’m fine. But if you were going to ask if I need to talk about something, which I highly doubt since that is not a DiNozzoish thing to do, then my answer is no. Now will you please let me out of the car?” Tony did let her out of the car, and when he did, Kate walked away quickly, leaving Tony with a not so good feeling in his gut.

“Morning Kate.” Mcgee said cheerfully when Kate walked over to him. But Kate walked right by Mcgee, hardly noticing that he exsisted. “What’s wrong with Kate?” Mcgee asked Tony when he walked up.

“I don’t know Tim.” Tony answered simply. “She wouldn’t tell me.” Then he continued to walk towards Gibbs, who was standing in front of a helicopter that was ready to take off, and Mcgee followed.

“So nice of you two to join us.” Gibbs growled at them over the whur of the helicopter. As soon as all three of them had stepped onto it, the helicopter took off, carrying Tony, Mcgee, Gibbs, Ducky, and a severly depressed Kate to a crime scene.

After spending an hour in the air, Gibbs sensed something was wrong. He was about to go and talk to the pilots when he saw it, there was a small missle heading for them, head on. He only had enough time to tell the team to brace themselves before the missle hit. The helicopter fell from the air and within forty-five seconds crash landed into the forest below. The team stumbled out of the air craft with no serious injuries, but the pilot and co pilots were, obviously, dead.

“Oh well, this is just great!” Shouted Tony, who probably had the most serious injuries. There was a giant gash on his head, and another on his leg. His nose looked like it was broken to.

“Your telling me!” Mcgee said, a little annoyed. “Who told us about this body anyway?”

“It was an anonoymus tip.” Gibbs stated.

“Well, maybe we shouldn’t follow anonoymus tips anymore.” Ducky replied. He went over to Tony to start taking care of his injuries, and then he took care of the others. Kate still hadn’t said a word, she was too lost in thought.

“Well this is f’in fantabulous! Of course, the one Sunday I have to work, the helicopter I’m riding in gets gunned down and I get lost in the woods. No! No! No! I can’t be lost in the woods, If I’m not found by Tuesday...” Her thought prosess was inturupted when She felt a finger run across her cheek.

“You okay Kate?” Tony asked. “You were crying.”

“Yeah Tony,” Kate shouted, “I’m f’in fantabulous!” And with that she grabbed up her back pack and slung it over her shoulder. Before anyone could stop her, she took off running at full speed into the woods, she wanted to be alone.

“Kate!” the others shouted after her.

“Damnnit Kate.” Gibbs said, mostly to hiself. “The rest of you stay here.” Gibbs commanded as he picked up his own backpack.

“But Boss...” Mcgee started.

“Stay here!” Gibbs shouted, and then took off running in the direction Kate had. With the way Kate had acted, he expected her to run for a good long while, but with his Marine training, he was able to track her, and he did. After running for about an hour straight, Gibbs found himself in a small clearing with a river, and he saw her. Apparently, she hadn’t seen the river, and had fallen into it. After she had pulled herself out, she collapsed on the river bank.

“Kate!” Gibbs yelled, running over to her. She was a mess. For starters, she was soaking wet and covered in mud. She was breathing hevily after her hour long run, and now she had compleatly lost control and tears stained her face.

“Kate.” Gibbs said again, softer this time. She heard her sniff a bit, and he slowly lifted her out of the river. “Kate, it’s okay, I’m here. It’s okay.” he reassured her as he held her against himself, trying to comfort and warm her.

“No it’s not.” Kate barely choked out. She leaned into Gibbs’ chest, crying harder. Gibbs silently petted her head, trying to calm her down, but it didn’t work. She didn’t stop crying until she had tired her self out and had fallen asleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kate slowly opened her eyes and knew that her wishes had not been fullfilled. What happened before she had fallen asleep weren’t just a dream, she was still lost in the woods. and... She couldn’t even say what had happened without crying. Gibbs had heard her tears starting up again and came over to her.

“Kate?” Gibbs asked quietly. “Feel any better?” Kate shook her head as more tears formed in her eyes. “Do you want to tell me what’s wrong?” He asked, and again Kate shook her head. “Please?” Gibbs begged. Kate looked up at her boss, he had said please. She could see that he wanted to know what was wrong, wanted to help, but she didn’t know if she had the strength enough to tell him yet. “Please Kate.” He begged again, and this time, Kate couldn’t refuse. She slowly sat up, but felt dizzy and almost fell, but Gibbs caught her before she fell back down to the forest floor. He lifted her into his lap, and wrapped his arms around her. She slowly let her head fall to one side and was about to rest it on his shoulder when she realized who he was and qucikly set her head straight. “It’s okay.” he assured her, and pushed her head down, lightly so that it rested on his shoulder.

Kate took a deep breath and began. “This morning, I got a call from my sister, Liz. When I asked her why she called she... she...” Kate could feel the tear forming in her eyes, but took a deep breath, determined to tell Gibbs what had happened, “she... Oh! Gibbs, she told me that my dad died.” She finished begining to cry again. “I... I couldn’t believe it. I... I had just seen him t...two days before and he... he was fine.” She said through her tears. “H...he died of... of a heart attack. I... I... Oh Gibbs!” She couldn’t talk anymore. Gibbs wrapped her in his arms more tightly, and put one hand around her head, holding it into his shoulder as she cried.

“Kate, it’s okay.” Gibbs whispered as he held her.

“Gibbs, you don’t get it.” Kate continued through her tears. She sat up now, anger rising in her. “This isn’t going to be okay! Maybe you didn’t have a great relationship with your Dad, but I did! The last time I saw him, we had a giant fight! My last words to him were, ‘I’m an adult now, stay out out of my life! It’s none of your bisness!’ and then I slammed his front door in his face as I left. I didn’t even have a chance to apologize!” She was yelling now, angry with Gibbs, but more with herself. “And now thanks to you and this stupid tip, I’m stuck in the middle of the f’in forest and probably not be able to go to the funeral!” She finished, with more tears falling than before. She tried to squrim out of Gibbs arms, but he wouldn’t let her go. “Gibbs, let go of me!” She shouted at him, begining to punch him as hard as she could. Gibbs just sat there, absorbing each blow and waited for her to tire her self out, but she never did. After about five minutes of punching him, Kate realized that it wasn’t helping, and not knowing what else to do, she layed her head back on Gibbs’ shoulder and let go. She sobbed, uncontroably, not wanting to stop.

Gibbs held her, continuing to comfort her. After a while, he layed down, laying Kate next to him, and letting her lean into him. Kate curled herself up into a small ball, leaning her head into Gibbs cheat, and Gibbs had his arms wrapped around her protectivly. Kate had finally fallen into an uneasy sleep, and Gibbs watched her as she did. Her breathing was steady, her chest slowly rising and falling in a rythmatic way. There were and few strands of hair in her face, which Gibbs lightly brushed back. When he did, Kate stirred a little, but only to move closer to Gibbs. Gibbs tightened his grip around her and whispered, “I’m right here Kate, I’m not going anywhere.” and lightly kissed her forehead. He finally let himself relax a little, and fell asleep, his head resting on hers.

When Kate woke up, she thought she was dreaming. *This can’t be real. Why would I be sleeping with Gibbs, and why would he have his head on mine?* She thought. But when she felt her heart, still hurt, she knew this was real. *Besides,* she thought, *If this were a dream, a; we would be in a bed and b; we wouldn’t have clothes on.* She giggled a bit, but that slight noise woke Gibbs up.

“Well, it seems like you’re feeling better.” He observed.

“I am a little, but,” she sighed, “I still...”

“I know.” Gibbs said, kissing the top of her head instinctivly, “You miss him.”

Kate nodded in agreement but then realized something. “Did you just kiss my head?” She asked in disbelief.

“Um.. I... Um...”Gibbs stammered.

Kate gasped, “You did just kiss my head!” She laughed slightly.

“Yeah, well, I kiss Abby’s cheek all the time.” He replied defensivly.

“So, that’s Abby. She’s not your agent.” Kate retorted.

“Well... yeah... but...” He stammered again.

“Do you liiiike me Gibbs?” Kate asked childishly. Gibbs didn’t answer, but he didn’t glare at her either. *Do I like her* he thought, *No I can’t. Rule #12. But... Ah screw it!*

“Yes.” He answered Kate simply.

“What?” Kate asked, really not believing what she had just heard.

“Yes, I do like you.” Gibbs repeated, and then waited for her reaction.

“Really? I mean Gibbs, really? Rule #12, remember?” Kate asked, trying to remain calm.

“They’re my rules, I can break ‘em if I want to.” He answered.

“Okay, then.” Kate agreed. The in one swift movement, she kissed his cheek and ran twards the river. Gibbs stared after her in disbelief, then chased after her. Kate hadn’t realized that it was raining, and in a few seconds, she was soaked to the bone. But she didn’t care. She kept running, not letting Gibbs catch her. But, marine man knew tricks and caught her, wrapping his arms around her waist, and lifting her off the ground, spining her around. SHe laughed a little, and when Gibbs stopped spinning, he changed her position so she was craddled in his arms.

“Hey Gibbs, why were we dry where we were before if it’s raining?” She asked.

“Oh, well, when you first fell asleep yesterday, I got board and built a shelter.” He answered a little sheepishly.

“Typical Gibbs.” Kate replied, laughing again. “WHat are we gonna do about food?” She asked.

“Well, first stop calling me Gibbs, it’s Jethro.” He demanded. “And second I also scouted the area. Follow me.” He set her down and took her hand. Togther, they walked into the woods to find what looked to be a million blackberry bushes.

“Wow.” Kate exhaled.

“Here, try one.” Gibbs said as e picked a berry and fed it to here. SHe chewed and swallowed, and shighed.

“Mmmmm. That’s good.” She addmitted. BUt there was something she had to ask. “Hey, Jethro,” calling Gibbs by his frist name was weird, but it was also nice. “why are you acting so... not youish?”

“Well...” Gibbs thought for a moment, trying to find an answer. “I guess, I’m just... happier than I have been in a long, long time. Too long in my book.”

“And why is that?” Kate asked innocently.

“Because I have the most beautiful,” he kissed her cheek, “charming,” he kissed her other cheek, “outrageous,” he kissed her forehead, “girl in the world in my arms, and she’s all mine.”

“So sweet.” Kate replied as she sat down next to the berry bush. Gibbs came to sit next to her and they ate their fill of berries. As they did they talked. Mostly about how long they’ve wanted to tell the other tht they liked them, and other things in that category. By the end of the meal (if you could call it a meal), They had learned everything there was to know about eachother, except one thing...

“What was your Dad like?” Gibbs asked.

“Oh...um...” Kate stammered.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me.” Gibbs pulled back quickly.

“No, I’ll tell you.” Kate said. She took a deep breath before she started. “My Dad was... well he was my Dad. When I was younger, I worshiped him. He and I spent a lot of time together, I was his little girl. He coached all of my softball teams, and he even was the troop leader for my girl scout troop one year.” She laughed at the memory, Gibbs laughed a little too. “Then, my mom died. I was nine. I don’t know why, but I blamed him, and hated him. I even thought of running away from him once, almost did too. I got as far as the end of the driveway before I realized I had no where to go. I actualy went goth once.” She laughed again, Gibbs just stared at her in disbelief. “Yeah, kinda scary huh, I looked a lot like Abby. Except without black hair, my Dad wouldn’t let me dye it. By the time I went off to college, I hardly spoke to him. It was when I was at college that I realizerd how much I’d miss him if he hadn’t been there either. We became closer. The fight that I had with him that night.” Kate’s eyes filled with tears. “That stupid fight, was the first fight we had had in over ten years. Why’d we have to fight, why that night. I don’t even remember what it was about.” SHe had begun to cry now. “And now, because of that stupid tip, that stupid tip...” She trailed off.

“What Kate?” Gibbs asked.

“I’m gonna miss the funeral.” Kate sobbed. GIbbs looked down at her, tears filling his own eyes.

“I’m sorry Kate.” Gibbs whispered to her, kissing her head again.

She looked up at him “What about never apologizing?” She asked.

“Doesn’t apply here.” He looked into her eys, calmly, not glaring. They connected somehow, they just did. They didn’t know who started it, they didn’t care, but in that moment someone had kissed someone, and it was the best moment in either of their lives. As they kissed, they didn’t realize it, but it had stopped raining, and all the stars were out. One single shooting star glided across the sky. One they broke apart, they continued to stare at eachother.

“Thanks Jethro.” She whispered to him, and yawned. He laughed a little at the face she made when she yawned. He slowly picked her up, and she layed her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. When they got to their shelter, Kate was asleep. Trying not to distrub her, Gibbs layed down laying Kate next to him, her head on his chest.

“Night Kate.” He whispered, and kissed her head. soon he fell asleep, happy for once in a long while.

The next morning was beautiful. THe sun was shining, and the birds were singing. The birds woke Kate up, and slowly she opened her eyes to a sleeping Gibbs. She sighed to herself and thought, *I don’t wanna get up, but I really gotta pee.* Finally she decided to get up and she did, after slowly and carefully removing Gibbs’ arm from around her waist. After all of about three seconds after Kate left, Gibbs woke up and paniked. *Where’s Kate?* he thought to himself. Kate returned soon and scared the crap out of Gibbs.

“God, Kate, where’d you go?” He asked, after getting over the enitail shock of her scaring the crap out of him.

“I had to ‘unhydrate’ as you call it, Jethro.” She said with a small smirk. Gibbs smiled a bit at the comment, and soon they were joking over another backberry meal.

“Hey, what happened to Tony, Mcgee, and Ducky?” Kate asked.

“I...um...” Gibbs thought for a moment, this was the first time he acctually thought about them since he took off after Kate. “I don’t know.” He finally admitted.

“Gibbs!” Kate shouted standing up and starting to pace around. “We’ve got to find them, they might be hurt, or hungary, or lost, or worse...”
Kate trailed on and on before Gibbs finally stopped her.

“Kate, it’s okay.” he reassured her, “they’re okay, and will find them. I mean, how hard is it to find a crashed helicopter in the woods?”

“True.” Kate admitted, “But which way did we come from?”

“Yet another good question.” Gibbs said as he walked over to stand by the river. “Now when I found you, you were laying in thew river at...” He continued to trail on, but Kate didn’t hear any of what he was saying. She had walked over to a tree, a particularly tall tree at that, and began to climb it. She climed higher, and higher only stopping when she heard Gibbs calling her name.

“Kate! Kate! Damn Kate where are you!”

“Relax, Jethro, I’m up here!” She shouted down from where she was sitting in the tree.

“Where?” He asked.

“Um... here, I’ll drop my shoes.” She told him, they were making it harder for her to climb anyway. So she dropped her shoes, and Gibbs found them in front of a tree, He looked up, and Kate waved down at him.

“Kate, get down from there!” He ordered.

“Why, I’m trying to find the helicopter.”

“Because, it’s dangerous.”

“So, I’m getting shot at once or twice a week Jethro, I think this is safer than that. Besides, did you figure out where the helicopter is.”

Gibbs hieitated for a moment. “Well, no but...”

“Then this is the only way to find the others.” Kate informed him, and she continued to climb. Gibbs kept yelling at her, telling her to be careful, but she didn’t pay attention. THe bark of the tree scraped her feet, but she didn’t pay attention to that either. She was so happy, she was climbing again. SHe hadn’t climbed a tree in years, and even when she did climb them, she never climb one this high. She reached the top in about Ten minutes.

“I found it!” Kate shouted down to Gibbs. “It’s west of here.”

“Great work Kate.” Gibbs replyed. “Now get down!” THis time, Kate followed orders. She made it almost all the way down, when the worst thing imanginable happened. She slipped. She lost her footing, and fell to the ground, hitting with great force. She could hear her arm and leg break, and she hit her head pretty hard, she thought she heard it crack too.

“Kate!” Gibbs shouted running twards her. “Kate, c’mon Kate, say something!”

“Jethro.” She was able to say, but it was barely a whisper.

“I’m right her Kate.” He told her, lifting her into his arms.

“Jethro... head...” was all she was able to say.

“You hit your head, but it’s not fractured, thank God! Your arm protected it.” Kate’s eyes began to slide close. “No Kate!” Gibbs shouted. “You’ve gotta stay awake.”

“Can’t...”

“Kate, hang on!” Gibbs shouted. But Kate’s eyes had already closed. “Kate! Kate!” he shouted, but didn’t recieve an answer.“Please Kate, wake up!” he begged, and he saw her slowly open her eyes. “Kate, you’ve gotta stay with me.” He begged.

“Can’t...” she said again.

“I know it’s hard, but you’ve gotta try.” Gibbs told her. Slowly, she nodded her agreement. He lifted her, and switched her position so she was on his back. He took off running as fast as his legs would carry him (which was considerably fast) to the west. He continued to make Kate talk to him, making sure she was still awake. Soon THey were in the clearing where they had crashed landed the day before and were cheerfully greeted by their friends.

“Ah, Jethro, so good to see you.” Ducky gladly greeted, Gibbs didn’t responed, but slowly lowered Kate off of his back and onto the ground.

“Boss, what’s wrong with Kate?” Mcgee asked, concerned.

Kates eyes had closed again. “Kate, Kate you’ve gotta stay awake.” Gibbs begged again.

“I can’t...”

“Try Kate, you’ve gotta try.”

“No I don’t... and I don’t want to. Jethro... I want to... want to...”

“Want to what Kate?”

“I want to... see him... again.” Kate’s eyes fluttered closed, and then opened again. “I need... to see... him... Jethro. Let me... see... my Dad.” Kate’s eyes slid closed and no amount of begging from Gibbs could wake her.

“Jethro, what happened?” Ducky asked.

“She fell out of a tree. She was trying to find you guys. On her way back down, she fell. God, I should never have let her climb that thing.” Gibbs continued on, blaming himself.

“Hm... well then, I guess I could help as best as I could. Timothy, I need you to get me two long and two medium sized sticks.” Mcgee nodded and set off to find them. “And I’ll need cloth to...” before Ducky coulod finish his sentence, Tony had his shirt off and was ripping it into strips. Soon, Mcgee was back wih the sticks and Ducky had started to splint Kate’s left arm and leg, for they had broken in the fall.

Tony hadn’t said anything since Gibbs had arrived with Kate, but something was bugging him and he need to know. “Her Dad, Gibbs?”

“Yeah.” Gibbs replied. He didn’t look up at his agent, his eyes were fixed on Kate. Her eyes were moving, REM, she was dreaming. But was it a good dream, or bad...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kate woke up on the ground, or rather what she persumed to be the ground. She slowly sat up, awating to pain that he knew was going to surge through her body from the fall, but it never came.She looked around, and saw a tall figure standing in front of her, she knew who it was.

“Dad?” She asked as she stood up, the figure nodded. “Dad!” she shouted and ran twards him to give him a hug, he hugged her back.

“Caitlin, how are you?” He asked.

“Dead.” she answered.

“No your not.”

“Then how can I see you?”

“Because, your on the verge of death, but your not dead yet, and I won’t let you die.”

“But, I don’t want to leave you.”

“I know.”

“I don’t want to be alone.”

“You won’t be.” He replyed. Off in the distance, Kate saw the one and only Leroy Jethro Gibbs. He was sitting by a boat, a bottle of burbon in one hand, gun in his other. There was a picture attached to the boat. The picture was of her. Setting down the burbon, he unattached the picture, and moved it so it was right in front of his face. Raising the gun to his head he whispered, “See you soon, Kate.” and fired. He layed dead on the floor.

“No!” Kate shouted, but as she ran twards the image, it dissappeared.

“You see, you can’t die now. If you do that is what’ll happen, and you don’t want that.” Kate shook her head, agreeing with her Dad. “He’s a fine man, he’ll do right by you.” Kate again nodded in agrement. “Now, wake up Kate.”

Just as she was aout to wake up, she stopped. “I’m sorry Dad.”

“I know, I love you.” and with those final words Kate slowly faded into darkness...